I'm trying to create a 3D maze. I've drawn the maze using the pen tool, applied a very thick stroke, then expanded the appearance. So far so good.

When I use the 3D Extrude feature, my walls are created and I can adjust angles, perspective, etc. but it seems as if some of the areas on the walls are dropped. As if I didn't have enough memory and it's not shading the wall correctly.

I have 4GB of RAM and no other programs open. Surely memory can't be the issue here.

Post a screen shot but I am not certain you did the right thing about expanding the appearance.

I made the maze with the pen tool as in the bottom screen capture and gave it a custom shading color a gray.

Then I reoriented the effects rotation in the extrudes dialog you can then make the walls higher or lower by changing the extrusion depththis will give control over the maze if you use more than one path for the maze you might want to group before extruding.

I think you might be right in that the engine is finicky. I was just going back to do a screen shot and wanted to make just a small adjustment and the walls then appeared! Moving it again, they pop back out, and so on an so fother.

I will try this again I think the problem is that you expanded the appearance, maybe I am wrong.

You might not relate to the simple way in which I do things so though I would be successful you might not find it appropriate to the way you want to go about it.

The strokes are still strokes no need to expand just group. There is one small artifact but I would say it was that I was working fast and need to place that path better than I did when creating the art.

just tried without expanding the lines and it did seem to work. Although I noticed in somplaces the I could definitely see a break in the "walls", as if the lines were not butting up against each other (but I think that's my fault).

I've drawn the maze using the pen tool, applied a very thick stroke, then expanded the appearance. So far so good.

When trying to get help with an aberent behavior, please state the steps you perform accurately. Otherwise, no one can replicate what you are doing in an attempt to replicate the problem.

Expand Appearance is not available when you have simple stroked, unfilled paths selected. Did you select Object>Expand? If so, did you have both the Fill and Stroke checkboxes selected, or just the Stroke?

Or did you use Object>Path>Outline Stroke?

When 3D Effect leaves out surfaces, it is usually (no, not always) due to self-intersecting surfaces (most commonly because of colliding surfaces on bevels); in other words, the instructions it is receiving are geometrically ambiguous.

Of course, you didn't provide your specific file, so no one knows where your paths start and end. No one knows if your paths include Compound Paths, and if so, no one knows if their winding is set correctly. So an effort to replicate your problem would be an endless guessing game. But try this on the same original set of paths:

1. Select the paths. Make sure they have normal strokes, no fills, no Brushes.

2. Object>Path>OutlineStroke

3. PathFinder Palette: Click the Add To Shape Area icon and expand the results. Now you have either a single Compound Path or a Group containing a combination of Compound Paths and simple closed paths. The paths have no strokes, only fills. This is the kind of unambiguous path information 3D Effect needs for predictable results.

Re-did it using outline stroke and adding to shape so that it is one compound object. Took it to extrude and it was doing fine until I started playing with the perspective. It seems at certain degree angles I would get the dropped out areas. However, I did find a spot that worked for me and will use that position.